The attached patch provides base enabling for PowerPC Altivec (AKA VMX) and for versioning effected functions. 2.6.0 kernels provide a PPC_FEATURE_HAS_ALTIVEC status in the AT_HWCAP. We need to capture this status as a static flag (__has_altivec) so functions enabled for altivec can run safely on PowerPC hardware without the Altivec feature. And now for the fun part. I think this requires a new glibc version because GLIBC_2.3.3 symbols are already defined for these (get/setcontext) functions in shipped distros.